Putin's nuclear slideshow reveals Russia's naked ambitions

Vladimir Putin is famous for taking his clothes off in public. But the latest display of naked power by Russia’s president was delivered fully clothed before a well-dressed, adoring audience in a Moscow exhibition centre.

It was quite a show. In what amounted to a state of the nation address, he hailed a new generation of Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles, underwater drones and nuclear-powered cruise missiles.

Russia’s revamped arsenal would prove “invincible”, Putin declared. US attempts to build missile shields – and it was the US all this was aimed at – would be rendered futile.

He enthused about “hypersonic” missiles hitting targets with the “speed of a meteorite” and weapons named “Dagger” and “Satan”. It was Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars all over again, plus PowerPoint.

There was a touch of the showman about the performance that the Gipper would have recognised. Putin faces elections on 18 March. Although he has ensured he cannot lose, his domestic record is unimpressive. So like unscrupulous politicians everywhere, he conjured up a foreign threat: Amerika.

“They have not succeeded in holding Russia back,” Putin said, harking back to the US decision in 2002 to abrogate the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty. “Now they need to take account of a new reality and understand that everything I have said today is not a bluff.” Cue loud applause.

There were shades, too, of the door-to-door salesman claiming to offer brand-new products when in fact the gear has been around for years.

Source: theguardian